Airplane Food
06 Mar 2008

Air France

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Before boarding my flight to Bangkok on Air France, I prayed to the airline gods that we would be served baguettes and brie cheese. Although my prayer for French food was not answered, the eats on board were above average. The Air France caterers could teach Vietnam Airlines a thing or two about preparing palatable sandwiches.

Our direct flight took slightly over an hour, which was just long enough to reach cruising altitude, scarf down some food and land safely.

On our flight to Bangkok, we were served a cold ham, lettuce, and tomato focaccia sandwich. The bread was lightly smeared with an herb cheese spread that I thought was a nice touch. If the sandwich had been toasted, I would’ve swooned. A container of fruit yogurt and a sticky rice cake were served on the side. Yay on the yogurt, but neigh on the cake.

On our flight back to Saigon, we were served a three-layer cucumber, cheese and pork sandwich on crust-less white bread. I was seriously starving at the time and killed the sandwich in less than three minutes. Who knows if it was actually good? The fruit yogurt made a second appearance on this flight, along with a jellylike red bean number. I was still hungry, so they both disappeared much too quickly to actually taste.

Restaurant Review
05 Mar 2008

Eating Mice Can Be Rather Nice

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February 20, 2008
Cuisine: Vietnamese

146 Ha Ba Trung Street
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

Phone: 8228510
Website: none

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There are some very interesting meats available for consumption in South East Asia. I’ve seen bugs, ostriches, dogs, snakes, bats and even cats for sale. While I draw the line at domesticated animals and insects, I’ll pretty much eat everything else, just as long as it was prepared with love, looks appetizing, and smells good.

With the year of the rat in full swing, a group of friends and I recently ventured outside our comfort zones to try a Mekong Delta specialty—mouse.

The breed of mice served up in local restaurants are not native to the city and are in fact from the countryside. These mice resided in rice fields and feasted on whole grains prior to meeting their makers. If this were America, the words “grain-fed” and “organic” would be touted on the restaurant menus serving up these little guys.

The mice at Huong Rung 2 restaurant are available in two preparations—ro ti (top) and quay (bottom). We ordered one of each to truly get a sense of the range of flavors mice can achieve. The quay mice arrived first. Two chuot quay—barbecued mice—set us back 60,000 VND. Upon their arrival, we scoffed at their scrawniness. Compared to the large fillets and drumsticks we’re accustomed to eating, these looked like beef jerky. At first bite, I found the barbecued mouse decent, but too bony to really dig into. Sometimes I took too large of a bite and chipped off and swallowed some bone, but it was no big deal because mice have really brittle bones.

Everyone agreed that the chuot roti (30,000 VND) preparations were much tastier than the barbecued. Dressed up in a glossy five-spice sauce with hunks of roasted garlic, the mice tasted surprisingly good. Even though the savory sauce didn’t add anymore meat onto the mice’s bones, it enhanced their overall flavor. However, to be honest, just about any creature doused in a garlicky five-spice sauce would be tasty.

Restaurant Review
04 Mar 2008

The Little Red Dot – Ho Chi Minh City

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February 18, 2008
Cuisine: Singaporean

21 Tu Xuong Street
District 3, Ho Chi Minh City

Phone: 9325123
Website: none

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Mi Phuc Kien – Singaporean stir fried noodles with egg, pork, squid and chives (38,000 VND)

Heo quay, xa xieu – plain BBQ pork and sweet BBQ pork (40,000 VND)

Hainanese chicken (40,00 VND)

Hainanese rice

Soy sauce, chili paste, ground ginger sauce, chili sauce

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I was watching No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain a few weeks back when I learned about a Singaporean sensation by the name of Hainese chicken rice. Chicken has never really appealed to me because I find that regardless of the preparation, the chicken usually just ends up tasting like chicken. Yawn… Pork, on the other hand, takes on flavors well and can be prepared a zillion unique ways—sausage, ham, bacon, loaf, etc. Hence, it is my favorite.

Even with my general lack of enthusiasm for chicken, Bourdain’s segment was so damn convincing that I sought out chicken rice for lunch that very day. Talk about the power of the tube!

The Astronomer had previously read about The Little Red Dot in an expat magazine, which boasted that the Singaporean-Vietnamese owners dished out great chicken rice. With Lush in tow, we headed to the eatery to taste the subtle goodness that is chicken rice.

According to Bourdain, chicken rice is made by boiling a chicken in ginger and other aromatics. Once the bird is thoroughly cooked, it is dunked into a large pot of ice cold water to congeal the fat and keep the meat moist. The rice is made from the resulting chicken broth, along with garlic and sesame oil.

The Little Red Dot’s version of chicken rice was everything Bourdain said it would be, minus the plethora of delectable sauces he had on hand in Singapore. I found all of the condiments available (chili sauce, soy sauce, chili paste and ground ginger sauce) flat and unspectacular; most likely because I didn’t know how to use them properly. The room temperature chicken was better off eaten without adornments on this visit. The Astronomer, Lush and I adored the fluffy rice with its faint notes of ginger and garlic.

The BBQ pork platter came with some rice as well. The heo quay’s crispy skin and centimeter of fat was quite good, while the sweet xa xieu was my favorite of the afternoon—candied pork. The Singaporean noodle dish, which was a touch heavy on the gravy, tasted thick and comforting.

This was a decent initial introduction to Singaporean cuisine and I am excited to delve further. Aside from chicken rice, what are Singapore’s signature dishes?